


all that you feel is only real when you decide inside

by Starful_nights



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Brian stares out the window and thinks, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Loneliness, i guess??, just straight up wrote this in one sitting and i never want to look at it again, no beta we die like were in a mechs album, the amount of times i had to rewrite the last line bc death to the mechanisms is unreal, the others are asleep, then the octokitttens and the aurora cheer him up, uhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 00:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30080424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starful_nights/pseuds/Starful_nights
Summary: The Aurora was too big on nights like this, and so was the space he stared out into.Brian is the only one awake on the ship, and as he steers he thinks about loneliness and the emptiness of space.Then the octokittens and the Aurora cheer him up a bit
Relationships: The Aurora & Drumbot Brian (The Mechanisms), The Octokittens & Drumbot Brian (The Mechanisms)
Kudos: 15





	all that you feel is only real when you decide inside

**Author's Note:**

> title from a will wood and the tapeworms song i forget which lol
> 
> anyways have some drumbot !! i love this metal man so much,,,,,,,
> 
> this is my first attempt at a mechs fic so uh. yeah i think i didnt do too bad on his characterization?? probably??

An immortal space pirate’s life never was _boring_ as such. Those simple three words that didn’t seem to go together that made up the job description seemed to forbid it. 

Still, when there was nothing to do but steer the Aurora through the emptiness of space, when the others were asleep, the octokittens were hiding in the corners, and there was no sound apart from the gentle rumbling of the ship, it was as close as it got. 

Aurora was all but asleep too by now, only a few gears turning in the area surrounding Brian. A rare peaceful quiet was settled on the ship, but he couldn’t feel it like his asleep or quietly existing crewmates did. 

Sure, it wasn’t bad, the simple movements and adjustments, the checking of maps old and new and cross-referencing them while moving the steering wheel millimeters at a time, but it seemed to enhance the loneliness that came with staring out into the void. Especially with the amount of time Brian had already spent out there.

The peace escaped him and all he felt was a deep loneliness that settled on him and seemed to seep into his very (metal, fucking metal) bones. It was peaceful in a way, of course, but it didn’t have the familiar warmth of his crewmates elsewhere on the ship. 

The Aurora was too big on nights like this, and so was the space he stared out into.

It was all too easy to imagine it being the same area of space as the one he drifted in for who knows how long. It might even have been. He didn’t remember much from his early days as a Mechanism, apart from the pain and strangeness (he still sometimes wished for his own voice back in the dead of night when nobody was around, (like now)). He definitely didn’t memorise star maps.

At least he had a purpose now, and didn’t just wander about the Aurora trying to find something, anything to do.

At least now he knew the others were there instead of just piloting all day and all night never talking to anyone else on the ship, however much his heart seemed to tell him he was alone, only him and the stars. 

Some hours passed in a similar silence, or maybe it was seconds. Time never really meant much for the Drumbot in the past millennia. 

Then the Aurora started to wake up once again, whirring and rumbling reminding Brian that he wasn’t alone. Along with the noise came an octokitten or three out of one of the vents, who according to Aurora have been sleeping in-between her gears and were all but squashed when she awoke fully. She didn’t speak out loud, not yet, but even the screen in front of Brian made him feel less alone by the second. 

The octokittens were the friendliest trio, to everyone but Tim. Luckily, Brian wasn’t Tim, so their soft tentacles didn’t want to harm him. They did nibble on his feet a bit, but it didn’t hurt, not really. It was how they showed affection and it wasn’t like these smaller ones had enough teeth to properly bite through metal yet. 

Another one of them popped right on top of his head from somewhere above, along with some scalding hot water. Well, scalding hot if you aren’t made of metal and can already function as a heater. 

He didn’t even realise how cold he was until now, when the all-but-boiling water warmed his frame up to something a lot more reasonable. Octokitten Number Four immediately started snuggling him, tentacles wrapped around his warm shoulder and all god-knows-how-many eyes blinking at him.

This octokitten had a name, and they only liked Brian for some reason. This was strange, but he didn’t complain, as who wasn’t in need of a vicious bodyguard paid in cuddles? He ramped up his internal heating, too, and soon all four of them were holding on to him so tightly that when the others would wake up, he’d have to scrape them off gently. 

But that was still far away, and Drumbot Brian steered their starship whose rumblings turned into an almost-lullaby at some point, and more and more of the friendlier octokittens joined the first four. 

And as he stared at the empty void of space from whence he came from, he knew that unlike the stars, he wasn’t alone.

**Author's Note:**

> leave kudos or a comment if u enjoyed (please,,,) or find me on tumblr ! (you dont get a url tho. just find me >:))


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